The 2017 Thousand Guineas field has been released and only eight fillies are set to contest the Group 1 event at Caulfield on Saturday.

Alizee will start the 2017 Thousand Guineas as a clear favourite. Photo by: Steve Hart

Global Glamour completed the Flight Stakes/Thousand Guineas double 12 months ago and Alizee will have the opportunity to replicate that feat this weekend.

Alizee made a fair start to her 2017 Spring Racing Carnival campaign, but she stamped herself as one of the best fillies in the country with her impressive wins in both the Group 2 Tea Rose Stakes (1400m) at Royal Randwick on September 16 and the Group 1 Flight Stakes (1600m) a fortnight later.

Another horse that will take winning form into the 2017 Thousand Guineas is Matthew Ellerton and Simon Zahra-trained Booker.

Booker returned to the races with a second place finish behind Merchant Navy in the Group 3 McNeil Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield on September 2 and she was a brave third in the Group 2 Danehill Stakes (1200m) at Flemington on September 16 before she returned to winning form in the Group 2 Thousand Guineas Prelude (1400m) at Caulfield on October 1.

Shoals finished second behind Booker in the Thousand Guineas Prelude and she will have the chance to turn-the-tables on her rival in the 2017 Thousand Guineas.

The Fastnet Rock filly started her racing career with four straight wins and she savaged the line to only just miss in the Thousand Guineas Prelude.

The big talking point about the 2017 Thousand Guineas field is the absence of Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes winner Catchy.

Co-trainer David Hayes has said throughout the 2017 Spring Racing Carnival that Catchy would take on the boys in the Ladbrokes Caulfield Guineas and she will do just that on Saturday.

One of the most surprising inclusions in the 2017 Thousand Guineas field is Darren Weir-trained Leather’N’Lace, who was beaten as a short-priced favourite in the Edward Manifold Stakes at Flemington last weekend.

Weir was very disappointed with the performance of Leather’N’Lace in the Edward Manifold Stakes, but he has elected to give her another opportunity in the Thousand Guineas this weekend.

The 2017 Thousand Guineas field is rounded out by Lindsay Park-trained Pure Scot, the promising Aloisia, Tony McEvoy-trained Mintha and the lightly-raced She’s So High.

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Thomas Hackett

Thomas is a passionate and opinionated racing journalist and punter who has been obsessed with horse racing since he backed Saintly to win the 1996 Melbourne Cup. An international racing enthusiast, he has his finger on the pulse of racing news not just from Australia but all around the world.